“#17. You prefer to travel alone, but meet up with people once you’re there.”

Every single month, I try to visit my sister in Houston. At the end of this year, I plan on driving to California (a total of 21 hours of driving) all by myself. As an introvert, I don’t view long road trips as a daunting or dreadful task. I look forward to them and try to make the drive as enjoyable as can be, by burning some new songs, downloading some new audiobooks, or making some few scenic stops along the way.

“#16. You’re at your happiest in places like coffee shops and cafés: surrounded by people, but still closed off and keeping to yourself.”

I always bring my headphones while I’m at Starbucks. That way, I can be around a full coffee shop and still feel excluded. I frequent Starbucks at least once a week and always feel productive when I’m there. I guess a small part of me enjoys seeing people coming and going. And a big part of me revels in the seclusion that is promised to me while I drown myself in my music.

“#7. Dating is weird, because you’re smiling and laughing and talkative at dinner, and then you don’t want to answer their texts for four days, because like, you just want to be left alone…”

My alone time can sometimes be mis-interpreted as a lack of interest in the opposite sex. I remember my last girlfriend wanted to break up with me because she didn’t even feel like we were dating. I guess I enjoyed my alone time too much. There are times where I get too comfortable in my personal space, that I forget about the other person.

“#4. When you do choose to grace a party with your presence, you are the life of it. You’re dancing on the table and doing body shots until 3 a.m.”

“# 5. … You then retreat into three days of complete solitude to recover.”

In the movie Inception, they play around with the idea of “a dream within a dream”. The idea is simple. You’re in a dream and for some reason, you see yourself wake up from the dream returning to your normal conscious life.

Except that you didn’t really wake up. You only woke up in your dream. You are still in the dream world. This is where everything gets confusing because how can you ever know 100% that you woke up from you dream?

You don’t. Well at least in the movie, it’s incredibly hard to distinguish dreams from real life.

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Writing About My Writing

That’s exactly how I felt when I set out to write about my writing process.

– How do I come up with these ideas? (I don’t know, I just do.)
– There has to be a process to it. (It’s called the imagination.)
– Next time you write a blog, observe yourself. (That sounds like too much work. Not only do I have to sit down and think about what to write. Now I have to pay attention on how I do it.)

I don’t know how I convinced myself to do it, but I did.

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Why Write?

I’ve always enjoyed writing. Before this blog, I had two other blogs. One in college and another one a couple of years back.

I usually get bored after awhile and stop blogging. But I always come back. Eventually.

For some reason, I have this creative bug inside of me that creates this itch. The only way to quell the itch is to do something creative.

In a book by Deepak Chopra, I remember reading the author explaining the 3 ways of experiencing life. You either experience life as a bystander, consumer, or creator.

For example, the sun rises every morning.

For most of us, we don’t even care about it. We have a billion other things on our plate. We’ve witnessed the sun rising millions of times. Today is no different.

For others who do care, they set about 30 mins once in a while to take in the view of a new day unfolding. There is something magical about seeing something so grand, warm, and beautiful rise out of the sky everyday.

For a select few, out there the sight of the sun provides an inspiration for something we are doing. We take in the beautiful sight of the sun and that pushes us to use the sun for our new company logo.

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Life is amazing but most of us spend it as a bystander. We simply are too busy to appreciate all the simple things in life. There is not much in life for us. Life becomes boring and stressful as a bystander.

From time to time, we may stop to smell of fresh flowers or call up an old friend to catch up. Now we are simply consuming what life has to give. We learn that it feels good to take. Life becomes good and cheery.

Finally, there are moments in our life where we are inspired or motivated by the world. We seek expression through our work or hobbies. We learn that it feels even better to give back. Life becomes purposeful and fulfilling.

There is a cycle in life. Things exist and happen. We can ignore it and leave it alone. Or we can open ourselves up and embrace it. You can then take what you have received and find a way to express it to the world. It can be a meal, a blog, a song, a dance, or a letter.

Once you have created something, you now give others the opportunity to consume something new in the world. From something that has already been created, you have found a way to create something completely new for the world to admire. The have completed the cycle of life.